The disclosed invention relates to the art of design and manufacture of garments and apparel generally and, more particularly, to methods for optimally adjusting measurements of outer garments.
Prior to the present invention, garments were generally made using one of a number of methods. The first method was to custom-make each garment to fit a particular individual, also referred to herein as a “wearer”. This method was very tedious, labor-intensive and expensive. The second approach was to make garments that were sized generically, so that a garment of a particular size was wearable by many individuals for whom the garment was substantially suitable. The measurements of these garments were very generic and based upon grossly simplified body shapes; they were often dictated, as well, by what fabric was available, the general mores of the times, and other factors, but, except for some gross dimensions, such as height and girth, had very little to do with the actual measurements of a particular wearer. Accordingly, these garments were either too loose or too tight, too long or too short and ultimately did not fit individuals especially well.
During the last century, a third method was developed. As part of this method, garments are made from one pattern, and all sizes are graded (increased or decreased proportionally) from that one pattern. Garments made by this process are sized using numbers and size-related terminology. For example, women's blouses are frequently available in sizes 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, etc., or sizes petite, small, regular, large, etc. These sizes relate to a grading system wherein a master pattern with a standard fit is created for a garment and then measurements for the other sizes are obtained by increasing or decreasing the master pattern by a proportional rate.
Typically, a line of garments is developed by a designer as follows: First, the designer creates a master pattern for a particular target customer, in a particular “sample size”, such as size 4. Then, all other sizes are usually generated by either increasing or decreasing the measurements of the master pattern proportionally. For example, selected measurements for a size 6 are generated by increasing the measurements of the size 4 master pattern proportionally, while selected measurements for a size 2 are generated by decreasing the measurements of the size 4 master pattern proportionally.
This system is still in use today and allows garment designers and manufacturers to make so-called “off-the-rack” garments that are mass-produced, but may not be appropriate to an individual's measurements.
A major problem with this existing system is that there are no standard formulas for increasing or decreasing the measurements of one parameter of a pattern, while keeping the remaining measurements unchanged, all to enhance a garment's fit in a particular way. For example, when a designer makes a master pattern of a particular size, such as size 4, those measurements are fixed, and there is currently no known means for changing those measurements to compensate for variations in a particular body region, such as the chest area, among wearers who are otherwise a size 4. So, for example, because the overall measurements of a garment are graded proportionally to get to another size, such as a size 2 or 6 (under the old system), there are no standard means for adjusting a pattern to fit a small-busted individual with a certain set of body measurements, as opposed to a large-busted individual whose body measurements are otherwise similar to the small-busted individual. Thus, no recognition has been given in the prior art to the need for certain areas or parts of a garment to grow or to shrink independently of all other areas, as opposed to other sizing methods that may fit the bust or the waist, but not both simultaneously. Instead, in this prior art scenario, when a pattern is graded from one size to the next, the pattern's measurements increase or decrease proportionally.
Therefore, the existing approach does not result in satisfactory garments because it ignores some physical characteristics of the wearers. For example, for a tall wearer, more material is simply added to the bottom hem of a shirt, instead of at various points on the garment so as to lengthen it proportionally or otherwise. Additionally, such garments lack any sizing continuity between designers, and often within the same designer's lines from one season to the next. Because such garment measurements are not based on any industry-accepted “standard”, there is no compelling precedent to follow, and therefore one designer's size 4 may or may not be the same as the next designer's.
It is therefore desirable to provide methods and a set of standard algorithms that may allow measurements of garments to be adjusted optimally and properly and thereby may allow the garments to fit reliably.